At the bottom of the vertebra, a small group of cultivators stood around. Among them, Hui recognized the girl with the stiff face from the inheritance zone, Liu Baozhai. Most of the others were seniors he didn’t recognize, in black robes with dark red hems. At the sight of Hui and Gu Tian, they turned away. One or two let out derisive snorts.

Gu Tian glanced at Hui. “Ah, Xie Hao… by all rights, you should have the same color hems as them. Why are you still wearing the second-realm robes?”

Hui glanced at his robes. Unremarkable in all ways, they sported black hems. “Eh?”

“Mortal, white hems; first realm, gray; second, black; third, red; fourth, dark red. You should match the seniors, not me,” Gu Tian said, nodding at the others.

Hui waved his hand. “It doesn’t bother me.” I’d rather be underestimated. It’s easier to play dead if the seniors think it’s easy to kill me. They won’t try as hard to kill someone at the second realm as they would if they had to kill a fourth realm!

Not that I’m planning to attack the seniors. But it’s always better to be prepared.

He frowned then, thinking. “Both Xi Guping and Xi Guanxi wore robes with green hems, though.”

Gu Tian waved his hand. “They belong to a clan within the sect, they have special rights. When did you meet Xi Guping, anyways? I’m assuming you ran into Xi Guanxi in the inheritance realm… I think everyone was surprised when he didn’t come out.”

“Ah… yes, the inheritance realm…” Right, no one knows I’m the one who killed them! I should keep it quiet, so the Xi Clan doesn’t come after me. Xi Guanxi was killed by Fang Hua, anyways, but… I don’t think the Xi Clan is going to care too much about details. As far as they’re concerned, Fang Hua is Jin Xian, my corpse soldier, anyways, so it’s not like they’d go after her in particular! Hui swallowed, then shrugged casually. “I don’t recall where I met Xi Guping, I just remember seeing his green hems.”

“It’s not like the two of them were reclusive… though that does only make Xi Guping’s recent disappearance all the more strange,” Gu Tian said, a hand on his chin.

Eh? Gu Tian doesn’t know Xi Guping is dead, but Xi Guanxi seemed to know… Did Xi Guanxi just make an educated guess? It’s also possible the Xi Clan has life tablets for their clan members, although then the question is… why are they suppressing news about the deaths of both of their prodigies?

No, no, what are you thinking, Hui? Of course they’re suppressing the news! If the rest of the sect knew that the Xi Clan prodigies had both died, the Xi Clan would fall from grace immediately! It’s better for them if they keep quiet, at least until they kill the killer… and maybe even until they birth another prodigy! Though I figure the sect will have puzzled it out by then… After all, it’s obvious already that Xi Guanxi is dead, and they can only hold out until someone else enters Blood Mist Valley before the sect has hard proof that Xi Guping is, likewise, perished.

Ah, well. The Xi Clan’s rise and fall is none of my business. If they just left this small cultivator alone, they wouldn’t be in this trouble! Hui shook his head at the Xi Clan’s foolishness.

He paused. Wait, that makes me sound incredibly overbearing. It’s not as if I sought out trouble, or wanted to fight back! They just…

Ah, it’s too late. What’s done has been done.

As he and Gu Tian arrived, Erlan descended from the heavens. “Is this everyone?”

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Gu Tian nodded.

Erlan gestured. Hui blinked, then wobbled. Eh? There’s… something wrong with my balance?

He looked at his hands. Turned them over. Two-dimensional hands turned, outlined in ink, a simple, stylized version of human hands. Hui blinked again, his eyes going wide.

I’m… paper?

“Don’t panic, don’t panic, everyone. Don’t worry. It’s very convenient to travel long distances like this. With you in this form, I can move at my top speed without having to worry about your bodily integrity. After all, I can easily protect you with the same qi I usually use to protect my clothes and belongings. If you need to break the spell, recite the mantra in your mind; similarly, any great damage to the paper form will simply restore you to your human body.” Erlan gestured. Hui, and everyone else, rushed up toward him, shrinking as they travelled. They became no larger than a handspan tall, then landed in a pile in Erlan’s hand. He tucked them into a special travelling pouch on his hip.

Recite… the mantra? Hui frowned. He focused, and a mantra appeared in his brain. He immediately dismissed it before he could think it too loudly. Ah. As he said, a mantra.

Erlan took off on his brush, immediately speeding over the mountains. Despite the fact that Hui was one of many in a stack and deep in a pouch on top of that, he could somehow see out.

How can I…

Wait. In the most recent battle, I could see the puppeteering strings without needing to specifically employ my soul’s third eye. Could it be… since I reached fourth stage, my soul’s eye is always open? And on top of that, I’m able to use it without leaving my body… ah, how convenient!

I haven’t seen the reaper in my body… but then, maybe it’s that I only have limited sight inside my body, and full third-eye sight out of it. I’d experiment, but I never know when the reaper’s going to show up, and it’s best not to attract her attention if I don’t need to.

So thinking, he settled quietly in the pouch, watching the world fly by. A few of the other disciples shifted restlessly around him. One began to whisper, only to be shushed by everyone else. With their heads so close, stacked atop one another, everything one person whispered could be clearly heard by everyone else.

I’m glad Bai Xue isn’t here. She’d do something horrible and lewd for sure, with an opportunity like this… Hui shook his head. Carefully, he felt Zhubi. Though Zhubi’s body flattened into a streak of ink the same as Hui, a warm, scaly texture brushed against Hui’s hand. He raised his eyebrows and touched a drawn sleeve. Softness met his fingertips, rather than the texture of paper.

How mysterious! What an interesting art this is. If Erlan hit me with this in the middle of battle… well, I’d lose to Erlan anyways, but it’d certainly give him the element of surprise.

Erlan sped faster. His body became no more than a streak of light, and he dashed into the distance. Under him, the earth rushed by, no more than a smear of green and brown. The sky melded into blue and white streaks. Hui closed his eyes, quietly regretting his ability to see outside the pouch. Ugh… I’m going to be motion sick.

A day passed by. Hui immersed himself back into meditation on the snake shed art. All around him, he sensed the other disciples immersing themselves in their own meditation. They sat quietly, uninterested in one another.

As the sun rose again, Erlan slowed to a halt. He flicked his hand, and the paper figures flew out of his pouch. A snap of his fingers, and they reverted to humans. Except Gu Tian and Hui, they all produced a flying weapon of some kind and stepped atop it. Erlan reached out and caught Gu Tian by the back of the collar, letting him dangle.

Hui returned to human and stared down at the forest below him. It rushed up, flying at his face. He drew Gu Tian’s sword and pushed power into it. It soared into the sky, and he rushed by all the other disciples, then fell back down again, hurtling toward the trees below. Frightened, Hui poured qi into the sword and thrust back into the sky. Equalize it, equalize it! You can do it! Fly, Hui!

“Er, Master Erlan, Xie Hao… only recently reached fourth stage,” Gu Tian whispered to Erlan.

Snorting, Erlan made a grasping motion. A hand of ink, drawn in a few short strokes, closed around Xie Hao and drew him over beside Gu Tian. Erlan shook his head at Hui. “Can’t fly on a sword?”

All around them, the other cultivators chuckled, hiding smiles behind their sleeves.

Hui attempted a bow in midair. “Please forgive this small cultivator. I’ve made the grave error of neglecting to study flying on a sword. I hope you can overlook my failures!”

Erlan frowned at him. “You…”

Hui clasped his hands over his mouth and tried a smile. Ah, oh no! Erlan’s encountered me before!

After squinting for another moment, Erlan shook his head. He pointed ahead of them. “The Mysterious Heavenly Forest Sect.”